Archive for the ‘News’ Category

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, will return to her broadcast roots and take her conservative message to Fox News as a regular commentator, the cable channel announced Monday.

“I am thrilled to be joining the great talent and management team at Fox News,” Palin said in a statement posted on the network’s Web site. “It’s wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news.”

Fox said that according to the multiyear deal, Palin will offer political commentary and analysis on the cable channel, as well as Fox’s Web site, radio network and business cable channel.

She also will host occasional episodes of Fox News’ “Real American Stories,” a series debuting this year that the network said will feature true inspirational stories about Americans who have overcome adversity.

“Governor Palin has captivated everyone on both sides of the political spectrum and we are excited to add her dynamic voice to the FOX News lineup,” Bill Shine, executive vice president of programming, said in a statement.

A CNN special investigation looks into the causes and effects of the Fort Hood shootings, Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN TV.

Thirteen flag-draped coffins left Fort Hood on Friday as authorities searched for a motive in the massacre that left more than 50 casualties at the largest U.S. military base.

Thursday’s mass shooting killed 12 soldiers and one civilian and wounded 38 people at the Fort Hood Army Post in Texas. The suspect in the shooting, Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, a licensed Army psychiatrist, was among the two dozen who remained hospitalized Friday night.

Hasan was transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and was in critical condition but stable, a spokesman said. Investigators were waiting to speak to the comatose Hasan, who is under heavy guard, said Col. John Rossi, the post’s deputy commander.

The bodies of the 13 personnel who died were transported through a “ramp ceremony” to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a dignified transfer, he said. It was a “truly moving ceremony.”

FBI agents helping investigate the shootings searched Hasan’s apartment on Friday while investigators sifted through the crime scene, Fort Hood’s military processing center, where soldiers report before they go to war.

Windows 7, Microsoft’s first new computing operating system for two years, goes on sale today. Microsoft has chosen a relatively low-key launch for the software, which is designed to make it easier to share files and folders across multiple home computers, and browse the internet safely.

Microsoft’s last operating system, Windows Vista, which was released in January 2007, received a frosty reception from users and critics alike, who found that it didn’t work on some older, more basic machines, and didn’t recognise some peripherals, such as digital cameras and printers.

Finding a halal restaurant just became significantly easier for American Muslims, thanks to a new smart phone application launched this month that makes dietary religious observance a piece of cake.

Ask dietary-cautious Muslims in the west what their major challenge is when it comes to eating religiously-permitted foods and they’ll say finding a halal place on-the-go. But with Halalpal, an iPhone application that locates halal restaurants and eateries throughout the United States, sticking to a halal diet has become much easier.

The search engine application designed for Apple’s iPhone gives users a list of nearby restaurants with maps, contact information, price categories and recommendations.

The application scans the internet — mainly Google, Yahoo, Yelp and the online guide to halal restaurants and products known as Zabihah.com — to produce a list of halal eateries sorted by distance.

Rami Dodin, Halalpal’s 26-year-old founder, said his application fills the gap between technology and religion in daily life. After years of working in the IT business, Dodin realized there was a void between the services offered by the latest technologies and gadgets on the one hand and the everyday local needs of Muslim Americans on the other.

“There is an ‘access gap’ between local halal businesses and their goers that Halalpal fills,” Dodin, who is based in San Francisco, told Al Arabiya. “Many Muslims have iPhones and blackberry interfaces that are useful on the whole but do not have services that cater specifically to their religious local needs.”

“Halal eating is a very niche thing and it is hard to get specific search results off of Google and Yahoo because they do not target that specific customer group,” he explained.

Does your physician wear a head scarf because of religious beliefs? How does an American teenager who practices Islam juggle hectic teen life with religious respect? Are you an American Muslim who has a close friend who is not, or are you a non-Muslim with friends who practice Islam? What can you learn from each other?
We’re offering a $20,000 Grand Prize for the best new and creative short video that reflects the American Muslim experience. Everyone in the U.S. is invited to compete, regardless of race or religion, so grab a camera, pick an assignment, read our online tips, and get filming.

WASHINGTON, DC – Amid disturbing revelations that the verdicts of Islamic Sharia courts are now legally binding in civil cases in the United Kingdom, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo (R-Littleton) moved quickly today to introduce legislation designed to protect the United States from a similar fate.

According to recent news reports, a new network of Sharia courts in a half-dozen major cities in the U.K. have been empowered under British law to adjudicate a wide variety of legal cases ranging from divorces and financial disputes to those involving domestic violence.

“This is a case where truth is truly stranger than fiction,” said Tancredo. “Today the British people are learning a hard lesson about the consequences of massive, unrestricted immigration.”

Sharia law, favored by Muslim extremists around the world, often calls for brutal punishment – such as the stoning of women who are accused of adultery or have children out of wedlock, cutting off the hands of petty thieves and lashings for the casual consumption of alcohol. Under Sharia law, a woman is often required to provide numerous witnesses to prove rape allegations against an assailant – a near impossible task.

“When you have an immigration policy that allows for the importation of millions of radical Muslims, you are also importing their radical ideology – an ideology that is fundamentally hostile to the foundations of western democracy – such as gender equality, pluralism, and individual liberty,” said Tancredo. “The best way to safeguard America against the importation of the destructive effects of this poisonous ideology is to prevent its purveyors from coming here in the first place.”

CAIRO — Devout Muslims and secularists are using the world’s second largest social networking website Facebook to debate the role of Islam in their societies, reported the Los Angeles Times on Friday, September 19.

“Secularism is refused by all means,” Mohamed Amer, an Egyptian, writes in a comment on a Facebook page.

Amer said most Muslims aspire to see Islam play a bigger role in their societies.

“In fact, it goes against the will of the Egyptian, the Arab and Muslim peoples who crave Islamic rule,” he writes.

“National interests rest in the adherence to Islam and faith.”

Amr Ali, an Egyptian dental student, has founded a Facebook group to confront efforts to promote secularism in Muslim societies.

“I’m very surprised at all the secular Facebook groups out there,” he said.

“Secular and atheist groups are posting on my group, accusing Islam of promoting terrorism,” said Ali, whose group “We the Muslim Youth Can Change This World” has attracted nearly 22,000 members.

“I’m concerned. They are young people and they are lost, following misleading slogans. Some of them are totally against religion and all the prophets.”

Facebook has grown to more than 70 million users worldwide to be the second social networking website after MySpace.

Founded in 2004, Facebook’s membership was initially restricted to students of the Harvard University.

It was later expanded to other universities in the United States and later to any student with a university email address from all over the world.